Zillow Plateaus While Trulia Grows
Here’s a little tidbit that got lost in the shuffle last week.
According to Comscore, Trulia overtook Zillow in traffic for the first time last month (Dec. 07).
From Trulia’s press release today:
Trulia, the fastest growing residential real estate search engine, today announced that it is now one of the top 10 most-visited real estate website in the US, according to the most
recent report released by comScore Networks Inc., an independent Internet audience measurement and consulting company. Trulia also pulled ahead of valuation site Zillow.com in the number of unique visitors to the site, as well as overall audience reach, according to the report.
I’ve been reminded of this fact by several Trulia employees over the last week and unless I’m missing something, Trulia really doesn’t have much to gain by beating Zillow’s traffic (a top 10 ranking is nice however) - other than bragging rights, of course.
Both companies are fiercely competing to build a new destination for real estate consumers on the web - but both are still miles away (for now) from knocking off the market leader, Realtor.com - at least in consumer awareness anyway.
So what’s the fuss about? Trulia is not competing directly with Zillow for the same 3rd party (big brand) consumer facing advertising, so getting knocked off the pedestal won’t immediately hurt Zillow’s bottom line.
Trulia’s model is to pull feeds from brokers and then upsell them on better placements and other enhancements on their site (slapping logos on them). And I’m guessing in that in this day and age, where most brokers have resigned themselves to pushing their listings to as many places as possible, beating Zillow won’t necessarily bring them any more feeds.
Still, the news is significant. Looking at the Comscore data again, it definitely looks like the two sites’ trajectories may be diverging. Zillow’s growth seems to be stalling.
When it launched it was dipping its toes into a blue ocean, but it now may be finding itself drowning in the Red Sea. Smaller, nimbler (and less heavily-funded) competitors are catching up to Zillow and overtaking them. The scary thing to the folks in Seattle should be there are many more on the way.
The impact here will most likely be psychological - Zillow has been the superstar in this space (at least, in the media’s eyes anyway) for the last couple of years. Not so anymore.
That said, being the big draw has always had its downsides too, namely the spotlight was always on and the critics were always watching. Zillow may be all too happy to have Trulia step into the limelight for a while.
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15 Comment(s)
6 Trackback(s)
- From Besides just beating Zillow, I find it impressive… « 4realz.net | Jan 15, 2008
- From Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » Traffic: Zillow (20%) vs. Trulia (300%) | Jan 15, 2008
- From Trulia Blog » Trulia cracks the Top 10 | Jan 16, 2008
- From Realtor.com vs. Trulia vs. Zillow « Chris Reeder’s Real Estate Blog | Jan 16, 2008
- From Realators » Blog Archive » Trulia cracks the Top 10 | Jan 17, 2008
- From The Foreclosure Blog ยป Trulia cracks the Top 10 | Jan 30, 2008
MannyMo | Jan 15, 2008 | Reply
I agree with your thesis Joel.
But then again, traffic isn’t everything, it is the traffic quality that matters.
From Seth’s blog today:
“The more people you reach the more likely it is that you’re reaching the wrong people…
Who vs. how many”.
Greg Knowles | Jan 15, 2008 | Reply
This will be a fun year to keep up on this battle. I like Zillow’s approach, I’m just not sure they haven’t bitten off more than they can chew.
Todd Carpenter | Jan 15, 2008 | Reply
I’ve been focused on highlighting addresses for the listings on my blog. I put them in the the title, and mention them again in the post. When you Google the address, I’m either first, or some times second. The competing site is always Trulia. Sometimes, the agent’s site never even shows up.
When I look at the searches that drive people to my site, it’s largely address queries. I think Google is driving Trulia’s traffic. I wonder what would happen if Google ever got serious about real estate.
Jake Massengale | Jan 15, 2008 | Reply
Trulia has great organic SEO on Google. I would guess that is what is driving their traffic. You can not beat organic search results on Google.
Jake
Gerry Bourgeois, CRB, CRS, Towne & Country, Realtors | Jan 15, 2008 | Reply
Here’s an interesting observation. For more than 3 months I have been trying (read: sent more than one contract, given credit card info, sent and then re-sent my firm’s logo, etc.) to have my Firm’s logo displayed on their site (Enhanced Listings basically) and I have yet to see it, even as of 2 minutes ago. At least my credit card hasn’t been hit (yet). Tough to make a profit when they don’t want to take your money!
Dee Copeland | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply
I actually had a customer call me yesterday because he found one of my listings on Trulia. I’ve never had anyone find me on zillow even though KWLS uses both I believe. I have had clients say they use Zillow’s “zestimates”, but they’re often out-of-town folks who don’t understand that Zillow isn’t accurate in Austin.
We’re a non-disclosure state and Austin has unique properties in Central and Lake areas. Zillow can’t zestimate us correctly.
Pete Flint @ Trulia.com | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply
@Gerry
Sorry for the problems you are experiencing.
I will get someone to contact you asap.
Apologies again, as you can see we’ve been busy, but no excuses for dropping the ball here.
Pete
Andrew | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply
This is good news from our perspective to upgrade our feed to Trulia and test some of their premium features.
Gerry Bourgeois, CRB, CRS, Towne & Country, Realtors | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for getting in touch with me today Pete (and Pierre).
Chris Dowell | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply
Hopefully the ROI improves. I have had my listings on Trulia for over a year and half and it is not even in my top 20 in leads.
Jason Brown | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
While the quality of traffic is critical, more volume certainly can’t hurt.
Hawaii Life | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
Wow, I can’t believe how much traffic Realtor.com gets in comparison. And yet, look how much their traffic is falling.
Hojin Chang | Jan 17, 2008 | Reply
I really like trulia the best believe zillow or trulia will overtake realtor.com eventually. It’s just a matter of time.
Neuhaus Realty | Jan 26, 2008 | Reply
There is no way, zillow will overtake realtor.com. The reason, the process is too user driven and subject to error, the key is that trust will be an issue.
Milan | May 11, 2008 | Reply
I think a huge part of Trulia’s growth is their tremendous SEO savvy over Zillow. Searching for “mycity real estate” on the west coast you will frequently see Trulia and Yahoo in the top 10, but Zillow is nowhere to be found?